With an athlete as talented as Morgan Park’s Nasir Rankin, the temptation is to never have him leave the field.
But as the regular season winds down and the Mustangs start gearing up for another playoff run, Rankin is getting a few more breathers.
The Illinois football and basketball commit still has an outsize influence on the outcome of games, though. He caught four passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns as Morgan Park cruised past King 42-0 at Gately Stadium.
Both of Rankin’s scores showcased his unique talents. The first was a running, juggling 16-yarder from sophomore quarterback Ronald Smith Jr. in the first quarter that put Morgan Park (5-2, 5-0 Public Metro) up 12-0. Then in the fourth quarter, Rankin took a short pass from Smith near the right sideline and weaved his way through traffic to the other side of the field for an 84-yard TD.
“Man, I was tired,” Rankin said. “I went to the sideline and laid down.”
He’s fine with not being on the field for every snap.
“Right now it’s about preserving my body, getting ready to go to the Big Ten soon,” Rankin said. “Everybody knows I play defense. So it’s about what we need as a team right now.
“We’ve got a lot of great defensive guys, so I feel like they just need the time to develop, get their reps. So when I’m doing my thing on the offensive side, we won’t have to worry about it as much.”
Besides playing Rankin less on defense, Morgan Park coach Chris James has been working to counter what opponents are doing to try to contain his star on offense.
“It just made us get better as coaches,” James said. “Some of the things you want to do when you have a big-time player — you want to get them going but you have to play within the rhythm of the offense. People play you different ways and you’ve got to communicate and adjust. … [We heard,] ‘Man, they’re struggling.’ Nah, we’re just young. We’ll figure it out.
“And we as coaches have got to put our ego in our pockets and figure out the best way to play for the kids. And so for the last three or four weeks, that’s what we’ve been figuring out.”
A couple of the younger players stepping up for Morgan Park are junior returner/defensive back Darrell Mattison and Smith, the sophomore quarterback.
Mattison ran the opening kickoff back 80 yards for a score — the second time he’s done that this season — and picked off a pass,
“He could actually play both ways,” James said. “… But he’s another really, really good CPS DB. He’ll fill into the role and be a big-time recruit.”
On the kickoff return, Mattison said, “the plan was to reverse it to me. And when [Rankin] caught it .. they all swarmed to the ball and the reverse worked.”
Smith was 9 of 13 passing for 275 yards and three touchdowns — two to Rankin and a 62-yarder to Lucas Davis Jr. William Smith Jr. and Reggie Gray Jr. added TD runs for Morgan Park.
“Ronald is improving every day, every week,” Rankin said of Ronald Smith. “… He’s gonna be a star.”
“He’s showing [us] he’s the kid we thought he was,” James said. “He’s developing, but he’s still young. He’s still a puppy, still makes mistakes. But he’s developing the rught way.”
King (4-3, 4-1), playing its first season in the Metro after being promoted from the White, had 55 yards on 21 carries from Jamar Lewis.
“I let my guys know they’ve got two high Power Five guys [Rankin and defensive lineman Carmelow Reed],” King coach Abdullah Asad said. “They’re gonna make plays. We’ve got to keep in it and do what we gotta do. We got a little too emotional and some things got away from us. … But there’s some things we can learn from the tape and we’ll be the better for it.”